Body & Fitness

Young mum’s warning after botched Thai breast surgery

“My liver, my kidneys, my heart and my brain started to shut down.”
Aussie mum's warnings after botched Thai breast surgery

A young mum from Perth has warned people to steer clear from cheap cosmetic surgery after claiming her boob job in Thailand left her with a “festering” superbug.

Courtney O’Keefe, 28, was in hospital for seven months and forced to undergo a partial mastectomy which has left her unable to properly breastfeed her five-month-old baby, she told Nine News.

After losing 35kg, O’Keefe wanted to treat herself to a $7500 breast implant trip with nine other women in Bangkok.

The then-24-year-old felt uneasy as soon as she was wheeled into the operating theatre at Pattaya Hospital.

“I just remember thinking to myself ‘This isn’t like Australian standards,” O’Keefe told Nine.

“It was dirty, it didn’t feel right and it didn’t look right. It didn’t look clean.”

O’Keefe became sick immediately after the surgery and when she returned to Australia she was quarantined in hospital while suffering seizures.

“My liver, my kidneys, my heart and my brain started to shut down.”

After four weeks of failed treatment, O’Keefe said doctors established the problem was a Thailand-based superbug, which required an antibiotic solution to be administered every hour around the clock for six months.

Doctors reportedly contested her version of events to Nine, claiming her infection was a result of not looking after herself properly post-operatively.

Travelling to Thailand for cosmetic proceedures is growing in popularity in Australia – with more than 15,000 Australian women opting to go abroad each year. It is a concept the Australian Medical Association doesn’t agree with.

“You would probably be succumbing to a pretty strong sales pitch if you think it’s a better idea to have this done in a country where you can’t even drink the water,” Dr Andrew Miller said.

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